Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Diana Johnson and Penny Mordaunt

Thursday 25th April 2019 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

The Daughters’ Rights campaign was started after one new mum was told that her new arrival being a girl must have been a disappointment to her. This matter and the issue of courtesy titles are complex matters, but we do need to look at them in this modern age. My Department is working on that, and I welcome the Daughters’ Rights campaign.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

T6. The Minister said that there was more to do in relation to abortion services in Northern Ireland. Will she set out how, with the absence of the Northern Ireland Executive, she will work across Government to ensure that there is a clear framework and timeline for stopping the breaches of women’s human rights in Northern Ireland and for when we will be compliant with the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women?

[Penny Mordaunt]

The Northern Ireland Office has the lead on this issue, and it is waiting on a potential declaration of incompatibility. There has never been a case of such a declaration being issued and the Government not taking action. I alluded earlier to the fact that I am focusing on what we can do with the powers that we have to ensure that, within the current restrictions, every woman who needs particular healthcare services has access to them.

Counter-Daesh Update

Debate between Diana Johnson and Penny Mordaunt

Thursday 29th March 2018 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

It is absolutely indirectly affecting the campaign against Daesh, particularly in respect of removing resource from the Euphrates valley area. The ICRC does not yet have access, in large part because improvised explosive devices have been laid in the area. My right hon. Friend the Minister for the Middle East has requested that the ICRC be granted access. The right hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Tom Brake) is right to say that we work with an enormous number of partner organisations. Indeed, although Oxfam is not directly funded by us, it is doing incredibly important work in the region and helping to save lives. We owe the people who are working in very dangerous situations an enormous debt of gratitude.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

Nearly two years ago, in April 2016, the House, including Government and Opposition Members, voted for the treatment of the Yazidis and Christians to be classified as genocide. Will the Secretary of State update the House on when she thinks the British Government will recognise that treatment as genocide?

[Penny Mordaunt]

I share the hon. Lady’s concern. The atrocities that have been committed against those people are horrific. As she will know, to classify something as genocide is not something that the Government can do—there is an international process to classify something as genocide—but I would be happy to update her, perhaps by letter, on what the timetable for that process might look like.